Olympics daily thread

Ososlo wrote: »

only caught it for a short period one night recently. I think it was on late or clashed with other events or maybe they didn't show much on normal tv. I agree it is one of the special Olympic events and didn't see as much as I would have liked.

I don't think any coverage was shown on the direct channels.

That nightly lull before the real stuff starts....

walshb wrote: »

Anyone catch weightlifting? A sport I love at the games, and saw none this time. It's one of D premier Olympic sports.

I did, I caught two or three nights of it. Very entertaining, especially at the heavier end of things. Interesting to see how it's largely dominated by former Soviet Bloc countries bar the odd exception.

Stheno wrote: »

Less I'd imagine.

Sounds like it might be No.1 priority for the likes of Arthur and Natalya. Not sure what it woudl cost, maybe they don't need a guy here full-time, just for significant chunks of the year. But i guess the governing body has to balance support for the elite athletes with trying to grow its own base so it's hard to know whether it'll be in a position to throw much money at problems like these. They'll probably end up having to cut certain corners like they've always done for all our enthusiasm in this moment!

Stheno wrote: »

There was a Welsh woman involved a few years ago, can't remember her name, did she feature at all?

Most people who lift weights tend not to compete in Oly as Olympic lifting is referred to in general, it's a strange sport in that it almost completely seperates Oly competition from regular competition.

Apparently and from my limited understanding Oly lifting is very different from a technical point of view.

I only caught two or three nights of the men's competition, not sure whether the women were on before that.

It's fascinating to watch. The lifters have a 15 second countdown in which they must get the bar up to chest level and can have their lift disqualified if it's not technically correct. At the heaviest weights (something like 40 stone) it's funny to watch the bar actually bending with the weight

Neymar's penalty wins gold for Brazil

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I agree. That makes total sense. Though I presume the athletes were funding those out of their own pockets, probably booking far in advance to cut down costs. I was checking how much core funding Pentathlon got here and the figure I saw, not sure how current, was 190k per year for elite funding. Even one full-time coach here would already take up a fair slice of that I'd say. I doubt they have many alternative sources of funding either. They absolutely need and deserve more money.

I'd say a fair chunk of that goes on horses. Expensive buggers.

I thought there wasn't such a thing as a"modern pentathlon coach" - that these guys have five different coaches for each of the disciplines?

Anyway, is guess that coaching an Olympic athlete is very different to teaching kids and working in a development role - i think you'd struggle to find someone willing and able to do both?

Fook it. I'm staying up. Let's do it, guys!

NiallBoo wrote: »

I'd say a fair chunk of that goes on horses. Expensive buggers.

I thought there wasn't such a thing as a"modern pentathlon coach" - that these guys have five different coaches for each of the disciplines?

Anyway, is guess that coaching an Olympic athlete is very different to teaching kids and working in a development role - i think you'd struggle to find someone willing and able to do both?

Yeah we were talking about a fencing coach, which seems to be the toughest discipline. I woudl assume they would have a separate coach for each discipline, or at least access to regular high class coaching.

I dont know if they'd have to be spending huge amount of money on horses. My guess is that they go to a school where there are horses and practice riding and technique there. Could be wrong, though.